Future Night
by WriteShop
Summary: Shirou has given up his dream of Being a Hero of Justice, but now he is lost and depressed, noit certain what the future holds for him. But then, Deus ex Machina springs an unpleasant surprise on him - he has to compete in the Survival game. And there is still Yuno to deal with. Shirou is convinced he's the universe's whipping boy. Sequel to FateStay Diary


Shirou sighed. He was feeling a little out of sorts. Well, to be honest, he was depressed. He had two more months of High School, and he was lost. He had given up on his dream to be a Hero of Justice, but now he didn't know what to do with his life.

He pulled out his journal to write about what was bothering him, but like usual, he instead wrote trivial garbage about what he saw: 'It's a warm day. Leaves are starting to bud. I should go the museum, see if the display of Ancient Chinese artifacts has anything cool in it'.

The journal had been Rin's idea. She had graduated early so she could start her application to the Clocktower. Before half her mage circuits had gotten fried last year, she was a shoo-in, but now, she felt she should go to London and 'press the flesh': meet the faculty and show interest in their research. Last time they had talked on the phone, she had gotten worried about how despondent Shirou had sounded, and insisted that he keep a diary, as a way to work through what was bothering him.

It wasn't working. '_I wonder if I can reinforce my eyes to see better?' _Shirou jotted down a reminder in his journal to try it this evening. Not that he would. What was the point? He continued walking home from school, his head bent down as he jotted down what he saw and what he planned to do. He stepped around a rock in the middle of the sidewalk '_rock in the middle of the sidewalk. Looks like concrete. Possibly crumbling masonry that fell off the building. Somebody should repair that'_

Shirou glanced down the alley as he passed it. There was a flash of motion behind a pile of trash bags. With a grimace he wrote, '_Yuno is still at it._' Yuno was his sort-of ex-girlfriend. 'Sort of' as in they had gone out on a couple dates after the Holy Grail war ended, but Shirou wasn't convinced that that had counted as 'dating'. And 'Sort of' as in Yuno wasn't convinced that they had broken up.

'_I shouldn't have lied to her'_ Shirou mused morosely, '_But I owe her'_ Which is the reason that he didn't push her away completely.

Between one step and the next, Shirou felt a new world unfold '_Reality marble?_' He let the journal dissolve into nothingness as he traced a pair of falchions..

"You won't be needing those" It was a deep, gravelly voice, coming from above.

Shirou looked around. He was in a huge room, decorated with geometric designs. In front of him, seated in a floating chair (or maybe it would be better to call it a throne) was a giant humanoid. It was at least 40 feet tall. It had a an inhumanly narrow face, ending in a jutting chin, and its skin appeared to be porcelain.

"Greetings. I am Deux ex Machina.I am going to grant you your hearts desire."

Shirou let the falchions fade away, but stayed alert. "Who are you?" he demanded

"I am Deux Ex Machina. I am the representation of the fundamental mechanics holding the universe together."

"What do you want?"

"A better question would be 'what do YOU want', for I am offering to let you take over my job. In effect you would be god."

"Are you are mocking me?" Shirou was starting to get annoyed. He wasn't certain what Deux's game was, but he didn't want any part of it. It sounded all too familiar.

"Oh, but I am not. I have decided to have a contest, a survival game, and the winner gets to take over my job, as Deux ex Machina."

'_This is just like the Holy Grail war. And that turned out to be a complete disaster. I bet the prize here is also booby trapped.'_

"I'll… I'll think about it."

"You do that. But if you say no, I will have to wipe you out of existence."

'_wait a minute - I don't think he's actually offering me a choice.' _ Shirou thought quickly "Ok, Ok. I guess I have no choice. I'll play" '_If it's just like the Holy Grail war, maybe I can at least prevent civilian casualties. Not that I was so good at it before. I got Sakura killed.' _"Who else is playing?"

"I can't tell you, except to say that they come from all walks of life students, public servants, magi.." All of a sudden, the room disappeared, and Shirou found himself standing on a small platform floating high in the sky (or somewhere - there was no ground in sight). His platform was just one of a dozen, all floating in a circle around Deux Ex Machina's giant throne. flying buttresses swooped over the whole structure, for now visible reason. "Here are all the contestants, gathered together." Deux pronounced, his voice booming throughout the structure, "Obviously, I can't let any of you see each other, but the last Future Diary user has been chosen, and I must tell you, that he is favored to win. Unexpected things happen around him. Very unexpected."

Shirou noticed that all the other platforms were occupied by shadows of people. Several were rather distinctive looking, but he was in too much of a panic to take note of any of them. '_Oh, shit. I'm the butt for the universe's jokes. I wanted to stay out of the way and keep people safe, and this asshole just painted a target on me.'_ Shirou sighed, '_There really is no way that I can save people. Why do I even bother trying?'_

There were mutters from the shadows, as the other contestants tried to get a better look at Shirou.

Deux continued " I will tell all of you present the rules. It's very simple - the last survivor wins. you have to kill the other players, or destroy their diary, which is the same thing. Each player will have their diary turned into a 'Future Diary', which will foretell the consequences of your actions, but it will do so in the same format as you have been using it up until now. The rest, I leave for you to figure out. good luck, and good hunting"

Shirou stumbled as he popped back into reality. '_Huh. that was weird' _Shirou traced his journal. It appeared. As usual, it was blank except for what he remembered writing in it. He waited a few minutes nothing happened. 'So the creature lied' Shirou let the diary dissolve.

*FN*^VFNV^*FN*

The next day, Shirou checked his diary several times, surreptitiously materializing it in his book bag so that he could check on it during the school day (it wasn't like he was paying attention in class anyway) '_Still nothing.'_

Shirou spent the rest of the school day zoning out and pretending to take notes.

As the last bell rang, he grabbed his backpack and headed for the stairs. He was about to head down when he saw somebody waiting at the bottom, '_Yuno again. I'll take the janitors stair in the back.'_ He kept walking and made his way into the maintenance room - He still had a key, even though he hadn't been doing much of that sort of thing lately. At the back was a stairwell going down to the loading dock at the back of the school.

Shirou had just stepped out onto the loading dock when somebody stepped in front of him and grabbed his shirt. Before he could process what was going on, Yuno pulled him in, wrapped a hand behind his head and gave him a rather intense kiss on the lips.

"Mmmph!"

Yuno let the surprised teen go with a smile "You need to pay more attention to your surroundings, Shirou, otherwise you won't survive the survival game."

"What?" Shirou took a step back, befuddled, "You mean that's for real?"

"Oh, yes" Yuno smiled and took a step forwards to close the distance to Shirou again.

"Stop that! We aren't going out!" Shirou snapped.

"Oh, that was a very hurtful thing to say, but it's ok, I know you're just lying because you're scared. See?" Yuno held up her cell phone. On it, the diary said: 'July 28 Yuno and Shirou become one.'

"Yuno… I… " Shirou turned around and hopped off the end of the loading dock, "We'll talk later"

He walked off.

He wasn't running away. He was walking. Quickly. away.

Yuno called out after him, "Check your diary. You'll see"

Shirou turned a corner and materialized his Journal (he refused to call it a diary. Air headed girls kept diaries). Still nothing new in there.

Shirou stepped out of the alley and was just about to turn left to go towards his home when he saw somebody down that way. He turned right instead. He power walked, trying to find someplace to lose Yuno, '_This is absurd. Why don't I just tell her I'm not interested.' _Though honestly, Shirou wasn't certain anymore if that would work.

He turned down an empty alleyway - it was closed off to traffic, since there was a skyscraper under construction along it. He chanced a quick glance over his shoulder - somebody was still following him. He glanced at the construction site. '_That'll do'_ He scrambled over the fence and approached the mostly finished building. He had just stepped behind a pile of bricks when he came face to face with Yuno.

"How did you do that?" he asked, incredulous.

"I have always been able to do this. My true Love Diary shows me what _you_ are about to do." Yuno held up her cell phone for Shirou to read. it said ,'_Shirou scrambles over the fence into the construction site and hides behind the bricks._' The next entry said '_Shirou confronts the Third Diary User. Shirou dies.'_

"What? What's that?"

"That's why I am showing this to you now - the other contestants in this survival game are also future Diary owners. They can foretell the future just like this."

But my Journal doesn't do that!" Shirou traced his journal. it still did not show the future.

"That's very odd. I wonder if it's because you used magic to create it?"

"Maybe. the Journal doesn't really exist. I am tricking the universe into thinking that it does."

"Well, in that case, you need my help even more than I thought. Right now, the Third Diary user, who is the serial killer who's been in the news lately, is coming to kill you."

"Where?" asked Shirou.

"Why, right here." There was the rattle of the chain link fence shaking, "I imagine that's him now." Yuno smiled sweetly at Shirou.

Shirou frowned. He glanced at his journal. It was still blank. "This is absurd."

He stepped around the pile of bricks, to see who was there.

Approaching him was a man dressed in a trenchcoat and a gas mask. A fedora and goggles covered most of his face. In one hand he had a cell phone, in the other, a large knife.

"What do you want?" Shirou demanded.

The ominous looking man didn't reply, instead he walked methodically towards Shirou, raising his knife in anticipation.

"Are you the serial killer?" Shirou demanded.

Again no reply.

"Screw this!" Shirou traced Kanshō and Bakuya. Immediately, there was a buzzing, both from the killer's cell phone and from Yuno's. The serial's killers eyes got real big as he looked from the swords to his diary and back to the swords. '_Oh, crap' ._ He turned and ran.

"Oh, no you don't!" Shirou flung both swords at the fleeing man, "I'm tired of being confused and uncertain, of being the universes big joke! I'm going to take my future into my own hands now, thank you very much!"

Bakayu flipped end over end until it impaled the fleeing murdered in the back. He staggered to his knees. Before he could fall, Kanshō whirled up and took off his head.

END

I am not certain if I will be continuing this story because the Mirai Nikki universe 1) relies on the audience not knowing what is going on, and once you do, much of the plot tension disappears. And 2) to do it right, it has to be depressing


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